Circle You
by Kat-the-Echidna
Summary: It was a game...a simple game...Why would they do such a thing? Why did they do this you you? Why...why is this happening to us...?
1. Prologue

**XXX**

_"Circle you, circle you..."_

The first shot meant that war had begun...Chaos raged our land for those long years...

Men ran to battle...

Many fell on the battlefield...

Toxic chemicals filled the air...

Women screamed...

Children cried...

Houses burned to the ground...

_"The bird in the cage..."_

Families were ripped apart...and mine was one of the many. When the Dark Legion declared war, many recuited to the Freedom Fighters to stop the uprising. Their leader, Lien-Da, along with a few others, decided that there was only room for once superior race here on our planet...All others were to be killed off.

The Dark Legion is an army of cyber-like echidnas; they wear all black and have robotic body parts. No one knows why they suddenly wanted war, but many believed that Lien-Da was a racist against all other species, and was probably brainwashed by her current lover. Now they built an echidna-only army and have hopes to "cleanse" the planet. Echidnas who weren't a part of the army were forced. This menat that young echidna boys and girls were ripped away from their families and brainwashed from a young age. Those who resisted were killed. That's why many echidnas tried to fled, but many were captured and executed on sight.

_"When, when will you come out?"_

The body count was unbelievable...humans and Mobians alike were killed one by one. There was a time were the Legion couldn't afford a lot of ammunition, so they did something horrific in order to recycle their bullets; they would take a whole group of prisoners, group them together against the wall, and fire a cannon at them to kill all of them at once...

The blood...oooh the blood...there as so much of it...It painted our streets...

_"In the evening of the dawn, the crane and turtle slipped out..."_

Houses were raided, and most of us attempted to flee the country. Long hours in stuffed trains and carriages were the only options for us who sought out safety. I remember their faces..My mom's tears when my father went to war, my brother's fearful expression, the cries of young children searching for their parents, the wails of those mourning lose ones...

I...I was so scared...we were desperate, we all were. We just wanted to escape...The echidnas who resisted, they showed us a detour to safety...How foolish were we to trust them...They were undercover soldiers...We were led right into their trap...

This is our story...

_"...Who's that right behind you...?"_

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> I went to Google and looked up the translation for "Kagome Kagome." There were about four translations for it, but I used to main one and combined it with the one from the mange "Descendants of Darkness." I'll update later on today. See ya later! (And sorry of the prologue seems a bit crappy...)


	2. Chapter 1

**It Begins...**

Jonathan fiddled with his pen nervously as he watched the aging Mobian pull a book from the shelf. Jonathan was sent to interview two Great War II survivors as his assignment. He was a interviewer, but he was nervous about this one. Being a human, this was his first time ever interviewing Mobians. He had nothing against them, but he wasn't sure how to approach one who survived being experimented on as a child; he didn't want to say anything to offend him. Actually, he had to be honest; he was a bit afraid of Mobians, especially hedgehogs. He had a bad experience with a Mobian hedgehog as a child, but he was trying to push that behind.

Jonathan found himself sitting up straighter when the Mobian returned to his chair. Jonathan estimated that this Mobian-a hedgehog-was an elder. It was hard to tell exactly how old he was, considering that humans age faster than Mobians. He remembered when he first arrived here, his first thoughts when he first saw the hedgehog. He still looks young, but he could say otherwise.

The hedgehog sat down, opened the book and started to flip through it. As this went on, Jonathan couldn't help but to watch him intently with interest. The hedgehog was around his height; dark brown muzzle, dark blue fur, a white streak of fur went down his upper quill, but it was off to the right; it was a symbol of old age. Emerald green eyes, wore red and white running shoes with a gold buckle, and wore white gloves with a bit of the fingers cut off. He could even see a fang poking out of the hedgehog's mouth, intimidating him a bit more.

The hedgehog suddenly grinned as he pulled out an old picture from the book and presented it to Jonathan.

"That was us when we were younger," he said in a soft, yet deep and baritone voice. Jonathan took the picture into his hands and studied it carefully. The picture was in color, despite its old age, but the colors were dull and fading. He saw two hedgehogs in the picture, both male, and looked to be around six or seven. One of them looked very identical to the hedgehog he was speaking with; blue fur, green eyes, white gloves and red and white shoes. However, this hedgehog's fur was lighter, and his muzzle was a peach color. The hedgehog next to him was very identical to the first one, but the other one wore a black vest and black boots. They both had their arms around the other's shoulder, smiling at the camera.

"Is this your brother?" Jonathan asked politely, pointing at the other hedgehog.

"Yes," the other replied. "That's Scourge."

"You two looked exactly the same...Could you parents tell you apart?" The Mobian released a hearty chuckle.

"My dad couldn't," he said, looking down at the book. "Our mom could, though. I remember a time when she told us how even the doctors and nurses couldn't tell us apart when we were born. They even had our birth certificates mixed up at one point."

"How is Scourge?" Jonathan suddenly grimaced. "I-if you don't mind me asking..."

"He's fine," The Mobian then turned around and glanced at the door on the other end of the room. It was slightly ajar, and sunlight could be seen coming from inside. "He's recovered greatly after what happened. We're still close, even after all of these years..." Jonathan fiddled with his pen a bit more, clicking it three times.

"You know, Sonic," he said softly. "You don't have to do this. We can always-"

"I already agreed to this, hadn't I?" the Mobian, who is indeed called Sonic, growled slightly, making Jonathan wince a bit. But then Sonic smiled, making Jonathan feel a little bit better. "'Sides, I want people to know what we went through in order to prevent something like that from happening again. Children are innocent, and there's no reason why they should be put through torture like what we went through." Jonathan nodded firmly before taking out his tape recorder and turning it on.

"Start where ever you feel comfortable," Jonathan said gently. "There's no rush. And if there's anything that's too personal for you to share or if you don't want certain things recorded, please let me know." Sonic nodded.

"I will," The cobalt anthro took a cup of coffee from the table and took a sip. "I'll start from the beginning, from when we first left. My dad was away at war, and we were left with our mom. When we heard that the Dark Legion were planning to invade our city, we quickly packed up and left...I remember that long train ride..."

**. . .**

I held my mom's hand tightly as I watched the countryside whiz pass the train's window. I looked over at my twin brother, Scourge; he looked just as scared as I was, but he tried to act like he was brave. Scourge, my twin brother, he was everything to me. We were the same height, same weight, same everything. The only way you could tell us apart is that Scourge wears a black vest and boots, while I just wear white gloves and red and white shoes. Mom was blue like us, but she had lighter green eyes and some blonde hair on her head.

We weren't the only ones on the train; there were a lot of families and kids like us on the train. Many were without fathers and grandfathers. It was mostly woman and children. Hedgehogs, mongooses, echidnas, foxes...So many species all in one place. It was so strange...Why did this have to happen?

My brother came closer to me and held my hand. I looked over at him and smiled, but it was a shaky smile. He returned my smile, but then Scourge suddenly looked up at mom and tugged at her dress.

"Mama," he said softly "where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe," mom replied tenderly, petting both of our heads.

"Is daddy coming too?" I asked curiously. Mom's eyes suddenly became glazed, as if she was holding back tears. But then she looked down at us and smiled again.

"Daddy will be back soon," she whispered. For some odd reason, I wasn't convinced, and neither was Scourge. But we took our mom's word for it anyway.

I forgot how long we've been on the train; I love count after the second day. We were hungry, thirsty, and scared. Mom let us interact and play with the other kids occasionally; there was a lot of room on the train for us to play. But now we haven't been able to play as of late. Mom, as well as the other parents, have been getting very uneasy for some reason. They won't let their kids play, and keep them near them at all times. Scourge and I couldn't understand why, but at least we could play with each other.

Suddenly, the train whistled and the train's break screeched as it came to a halt. Mom clasped our hands even tighter as the train got slower and slower, and eventually stopped. There was a lot of murmuring, whispering, and the occasional cry of a child all around us. And then the doors opened and people shouted at us, ordering us out of the train. We followed mom very closely as we exited the train and went into the crowd of humans and Mobians. We were heading towards a gate into the city we were supposed to be residing in. The gate was just ahead of us; mom was hurrying towards it, and my brother and I almost had to jog after her.

We were almost at the gate when mom was suddenly stopped by a rugged looking echidna. He was red like all other echidnas, but he had a patch over his eye, had a large scar on his muzzle, and wore brown pants and sandals. We don't know what they were saying at first, but then he suddenly looked down at us, and then at our mom and asked quickly "are they twins?" Mom looked down at us, and then back at the echidna and slowly nodded.

"Is...is that good?" she asked quietly. The echidna nodded slowly, and then he suddenly shouted "twins!" repeatedly. After that, everything became a whir. Mom asked what was going on, but the echidna ignored her. It was moments later when my brother and I were grabbed and dragged away from mom. Mm screamed and wailed and reached out for us, but she was held back by other echidnas. Scourge and I cried and tried to go back to our mother, but whoever was taking us away was clearly stronger. We didn't stand a chance.

Our cries were ignored, and we struggled for nothing. Soon, we could no longer see our mom, but we could faintly hear her cries until they suddenly stopped. My stomached tied into a knot as Scourge and I were forced into an army truck filled with other kids like us. Scourge was still trying to fight the people who dragged us, but he was ignored and pushed into the truck. I attempted to calm him down, but he wouldn't hear me. And then, the truck drove off, and we never saw mom again.

That's when our hell started...

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> So people won't get confused here, I'm basing this off of what a Nazi doctor did to children during World War II, and I'm also adding elements from a Vocaloid song that's also a story called "Kagome Kagome." This explains the prologue.

Now then, updating this might not be as quick, since I want the chapter to be a bit long, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, I won't go into what I usually say, but I will say that I do not want flames; if you don't have anything nice to say about this, don't even review (review if you WANT to, not because I told you to). However, I accept criticism. That is all.

Thanks for reading guys! Se ya next time! And God bless! :D


	3. Chapter 2

**That's No Angel**

I'm not sure what was longer, the train ride or the ride in the truck. It was bad enough that we had to go a long period of time without food or water, but to do it twice in the same day?

However, we weren't alone in that truck they put us in; there were a lot of kids-both humans and Mobians-of all ages. Most of them were crying, others were distraught, and the rest just seemed downright confused. There was a girl near the front who was wailing her head off; a pink hedgehog with messy hair and a torn dress. She was crying out for her father, but we all knew that she wasn't going to see him any time soon.

Scourge and I were scared-no, terrified by this point. First our father leaves, then we quickly leave our home, ride a train for days, and then we're ripped away from out mother and being shipped off to who knows where. I wanted to be brave for my brother, but it was very difficult, considering that we were no younger than six at the time.

"Sonic," Scourge asks me with his voice cracking; I could tell he was going to bursts into tears at any given moment. "Where are we going?"

"I dunno..." I replied, hanging my head.

"Are we going to see mom again?" he asks. I kept my mouth shut; I felt another knot develop in my stomach. I was young, but even I had figured out that we weren't going to see mom again. But there was no way I as going to tell this to my brother. The both of us were very close to mom, but Scourge and mom were inseparable. Scourge was always by her side, no matter where they were. I knew this would crush his heart, and I didn't want to have the burden of telling him the horrible truth. But I think he knew the answer when he saw my expression; actions speak louder than words, you know.

It felt like hours until the truck suddenly stopped. We had to wait a few moments before the back of the truck opened. Two more echidnas ushered us out and into a large building surrounded by a forest. I overheard a human boy ask the echidna where they were, and one of them replied that this was an orphanage, and we would be safe here. If only we had known then that it was the complete opposite...

We were told to line up before we went inside. The "orpahange" looked like what you would expect and orpahange to look like at that time. But it wasn't much to look at to tell the truth.

Scourge and I were gripping each other's hands even though we were lined up; there was no way I was going to let my brother out of my sight while in this foriegn-looking place. The other kids seemed to have been put at ease upon entering the orphanage, but Scourge and I couldn't help but to feel an uneasiness to this place. I knew Scourge felt the same way because we have a sort of spiritual connection with one another. Whenever I was happy, Scourge would be happy. If Scourge was angry or sad, then I would be angry or sad too. We were that close that we could even feel each other's emotions.

We had to walk down several hallways before we were eventually ushered into a bright multicolored room filled with toys. There were more kids in there too, but not as many as the ones who came in the truck with us. The echidnas told us to "play nice" before they left us alone in the room with the children. The door closed behind us, and I heard a "click" on the other side, and I got the feeling that we were locked in.

Like I said before, the room was multicolored and filled with toys to give it its "child-friendly" feel. There was a television up against the front wall, bathrooms in the back, a kitchen and dining room, and there was only a single window in the entire room. Scourge and I remained close to the door while the other kids ran off to play. We both got a bad vibe from this place. The whole set-up wasn't right at all. We weren't orphans, we were forcefully taken away from our mom, and now we're put in an "orphanage"...Something was very wrong here.

Scourge tugged at my arm to get my attention some seconds later, and when I looked over at him, he pointed at a group of kids who were dancing around a Mobian dog child. The kids had their hands intertwined with one another, circling the child, and the child had his hands over his eyes. The song they were singing...it was a nursery rhyme that Scourge nor I had heard of.

_"Circle you, circle you,_

_The bird in the cage._

_When, when will you come out?_

_In the evening of the dawn,_

_The crane and turtle slipped out._

_Who's that right behind you?"_

The singing stopped, the kids stopped circling the dog-child, and the Mobian removed his eyes while the children around him giggled. The Mobian canine looked thoughtful for a moment before he asked "Heather?" to the others. The kids giggled again, and a girl said "wrong!" as the others giggled even more. The dog poked his lip out and they started to circle him again, singing the same song.

I tilted my head at the group, intrigued by this new game. I looked like Ring Around the Rosie, but it was different. Of course, we were just kids, so we wanted to play the game too. Scourge tugged at my arm again, but now he had an excited smile on his face.

"Let's play too," he said eagerly.

"Wait," I argued. "We don't know anyone here." I forgot to mention that he and I swapped the "big brother" role occasionally, but I was the big brother most of the time. Scourge had a knack for finding trouble, and I had to keep an eye on him most of the time.

Scourge pouted at me, but I ignored him for the most part as I led him to the area with the toys. We would just have to settle with playing with one another until we get to know the other children more before we played the new game. I could tell that you had to know the names of the kids here in order to play. I wasn't really bothered to tell the truth; we just lost mom and dad, so now we only had each other. I don't know what I would do if i ever lost my brother, and there's no telling what would Scourge do if he ever lost me.

Time passed as Scourge and I played, and it was only a matter of time before some of the kids finally approached us. A few of them were some of the kids who were in the truck with us, while the last few were those who were here before us. A human girl with long brown hair and wearing a blue dress was playing with us when she suddenly asked

"Have you met the Angel yet?" Scourge and I gave her a look.

"You can't see angels!" Scourge scoffed in a matter-of-fact tone. "Mama says that angels are invisible so they can't be seen by peoples. She says it was a way to protect themselves from demons who were walkin' 'round!"

"But you can see this angel," the girl argued. "He's white all over, and wears a cape!"

"Yeah right," my brother laughed.

"It's true," a parrot, who was next to the girl, added. "He comes in everyday and gives us sweets! An' then, he would pick one of us and take us to paradise where there's no fighting!"

"Is he coming today?" I asked curiously. I was as skeptical as Scourge was, but the way these kids were talking made me believe that they may have saw _some_thing.

"Yeah!" the human girl said. "He has to because he...um...he has to meet the new kids like you!" I think someone might have heard the conversation, because as soon as that girl finished her sentence, we heard the door to the room being messed with. Most of the room went quiet, but some of the children kept on doing what they were doing. The human girl suddenly started to shake Scourge's shoulder going "he's here! He's here!" over and over again. It was then when the door opened, and _he_ stepped into the room...

**. . .**

Sonic gulped down that last bit of his coffee from his mug as he finished the last part of his story. Jonathan wrote down some more notes before putting his clipboard and pen down on the table in front of him.

"So, what was your initial reaction when you first saw him?" the man asked curiously.

"Weird, creepy...weird, somewhere along those lines," Sonic replied.

"You were a kid then," Jonathan went on. "Did you believe that he was an angel too?"

"Hardly," Sonic said with a sideways smile. "His appearance didn't give him that title, but his act did." A cough could be heard in the other room before another figure stepped out of the back room. He was a hedgehog like Sonic, and they were similar in a few ways. However, this hedgehog was dark green, with blue eyes, wore sky blue sweat pants and socks. His quills were messy, and he had the same white streak on his upper quill like Sonic did, but it went down the opposite direction. Two large scars decorated his chest, as well as a scar on his left eye, and part of his left ear was missing. He yawned, revealing his unnaturally sharp teeth as he scratched the back of his head. Sonic had looked back at the other hedgehog and smiled a bit.

"Sleeping Beauty finally awakens!" he said wryly.

"Heard that, you ol' goat," the other mumbled, still fighting off sleep. "What're you doin' in here anyway?"

"Having an interview," Sonic replied innocently. Upon hearing that, the other hedgehog seemed to have woken up instantly.

"Oh," he said. "Am I late?"

"By fifteen minutes."

"Crap..." the green one stretched before yawning again. "Gimme a few minutes. I'll be in there in a sec." And then he dragged himself up the stairs to the second floor, most likely heading to the bathroom. Sonic gave an apologetic look to Jonathan, who was waiting patiently.

"I apologize for that," the blue one said.

"It's fine," Jonathan smiled. "I take it that that's your brother?" Sonic nodded. "But...why does he..."

"I think you already know." Jonathan looked at Sonic for a few moments before the realization finally kicked in. His felt flared up with embarrassment and he began to fidget some more in his seat.

"O-oh dear," he said nervously. "I'm so sorry...I forgot-"

"Don't worry about it," Sonic said. "We get that all of the time. But I'll let him tell you what happened once he comes back." Jonathan nodded before he picked up his pen and clipboard.

"Care to continue?" he asked. Sonic nodded again, and he continued his story...

**. . .**

All of the kids in the room stopped what they were doing once they heard the door open. Some showed excitement, others looked content, and those who were new, like us, were confused. The same two echidnas who ushered us here were now standing behind a third. He...was very unique in appearance. For starters, he was an albino echidna. White all over, but had strange black markings on his body, and there was this...orange diamond-shaped thing on his forehead with a black swirl. Had black and yellow eyes, glasses, and wore a cape like the girl said, but it was black. Wore gray boots, and no gloves.

I really hoped that this echidna wasn't the "angel" the kids were talking about, because he looked like we could have been staring at the devil himself.

The echidna smiled at us sweetly, and bowed his head.

"Good afternoon, children," he said. His voice was deep, and kinda gruffy; not the kind of voice you expect to hear from an "angel." But the children repeated his greeting to him cheerfully, but Scourge and I remained silent. After that, he asked what we were up to today, and the kids told him that they played "Circle you." Apparently that was the name of the new game that Scourge and I saw earlier. The albino then asked who lost, and everyone pointed to the Mobian dog-his name was Greg-and he hung his head down while he blushed with embarrassment. The echidna smiled when hearing this; it was very hard to tell what kind of smile that was. It wasn't excited, mocking or anything...it was...bland, as if he was trying to hide his real emotions. Nonetheless, no one noticed, but I did, and I think Scourge did too.

And then he turned towards us. Scourge shuffled closer to me as the strange-looking echidna knelt down in front of us. He said hi and all of that, and then he asked us for our names. I mumbled mine, and Scourge did the same. And then he asked us if we were twins. I were a bit reluctant to tell him that we were twins; look at what happened before? Our mom told a complete stranger that we were twins and we were ripped away from her. If we told this guy, what would he do to us? Either way, we said we were, and he seemed very content with it. After he was done with us, went did the same to the other new kids besides us. Once that was all over, he gave us all some snacks-just a box of animal crackers and cartons of chocolate milk for each kid. Scourge immediately chowed down on his crackers; he was the big eater in the family. I was very hungry, but I didn't have an appetite. Mom always told us to never accept candy-or crackers in this case-from strangers.

"Hey mister, what's your name?" Scourge asked the echidna, taking the words right out of my mouth. He smiled again before he said

"I am known as Dr. Finitevus."

"Doctor...Fiiii...Fiiiiniiiituhves...?" Scourge was very bad at pronouncing long words as a child. I was too, but Scourge would usually try to attempt them to make it seem like he was smarter. I decided not to even attempt saying his name since...well, there was no way I could pronounce a weird name like that!

Anyway, "Finitevus" chuckled at Scourge's efforts and told us to just call him "Fini" or "Uncle Fini" as the kids call him. I would just settle for calling him Fini, since there was no way in hell I was calling that guy my uncle!

After that, Fini told the other two echidnas to restock the fridge with food, the kids went back to playing and eating their snacks. Eventually, the echidnas finished their job and left, but Fini stayed longer for a little bit. He gazed around the room, looking at each child until his oddly colored eyes rested on the one he was looking for.

"Greg," he called. Said Mobian perked up before he got up from the floor and walked over to the echidna. Fini then knelt down next to him and started whispering something to him. I couldn't hear what thy were saying, but Greg suddenly smiled as he looked up at the echidna and nodded furiously. Fini smiled back, and Greg took his hand and the little canine followed the strange colored echidna out of the door.

When that door closed we never saw poor little Greg again...

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> I know the ending is crappy, but I had nothing left D:

Well, I'm going to try and update this soon, but it the next chapter might be up by either tomorrow or Saturday.

Thanks for reading guys! God bless!


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: **I just want to get something clear here so I won't have to answer questions later:

I am using elements from the games, comics and a bit of the anime, since all, if not most of the characters mentioned here (not counting the minor OCs), had at least one or more appearences in the comics. This includes Blaze, Silver, Chris, and so on. That is why they are here. I happen to be an Archie comic fan so that's why you see a lot of characters from the comics here.

Now then...read on!

* * *

><p><strong>Can You Lend a Hand? Maybe an Arm?<strong>

"So, about this game...I remembered that you told me that the game was a vital part of this," Jonathan mused. "Can you get into that?"

"Sure," Sonic replied, turning towards his brother, who was now sitting in the living room with them. "But I think it's time Scourge tell his part of the story." Jonthan turned towards the green hedgehog who was sitting next to the blue one; he had his legs crossed and finishing the lst bit of his strawberry frosted donut.

"Why do I gotta tell it?" Scourge asked, wiping crumbs on his pants. "Yer better at tellin' stories, bro."

"But you were the one who played the game first," Sonic argued. "Besides, you gotta make up for sleeing in earlier." The green one hummed for a moment before he sat up, reached over and took a biscuit from the plate sitting on the table and began to nibble on it.

"Fine," he mumbled. "But it might be short. I don't like tellin' stories. Especially since this one..." Scourge shuddered.

"Start whenever you're ready," Jonathan encouraged. "If you don't want to share, you don't need to."

"No," Scourge said. "I ain't gonna let this control my life. If I don't share it an' let it go, I'll never be the same again. 'Sides, I gotta let the past go. I'm gettin' old, almost fifty years old now."

"Fifty years old? !" Jonathan gasped. "But it's been more than seventy years since the war!" Sonic and Scourge exchange glances before they chuckled.

"Jon, did'ja forget?" Sonic laughed. "Mobians age slower than humans."

"I knew that but..." Jonathan shook his head. "Well, better not rely on that. Let's continue." Scourge shook his head and nibbled at his biscuit again.

"Well, continuin' from where we left off," the green one trailed "weeks had passed ever since we arrived at that place. Things were...pretty normal, to say the least, if you don't count Greg's sudden disapperace."

**. . .**

Sonic and I played, ate, slept and do what kids do at that age. While we were there, we made friends in the other kids; there were quite a few of us in the end. I remember their names. Our very first friend was a Mobian yellow fox named Miles Prower, but we gave him the nickname "Tails" because he had two tails for some odd reason. His father was one of the many soldiers who died in battle, and his mom was killed during a raid, and that's how he was sent to the orphanage. He was a shy boy; never really talked until Sonic and I came around. But the kid had a good head on his shoulders. He was smart as hell; he could literally take a calculator apart and put it back together again perfectly. Yeah, he was that smart. He had been there for more than a week.

Another one of our friends was a red echidna named Knuckles. We met him the hard way; he was the bully of the group. But Sonic happened to have set him straight after he stole a cookie from me and hit me when I tried to get it back. Sonic had became very protective of me around that time, and he gave the little knucklehead a beating to remember. But Tails and I broke up the fight, and we learned that Knuckles only acted to be mean because he was actually very timid. His dad was also fighting in the war, but his mom left them after having a heated fight with his mom. He was a big crybaby, but had strength like you wouldn't believe. He could pick up a car with no effort at all, but an adult would struggle just to get it hovering off of the ground! But he was a great kid, but was too gullible for his own good. Not to mention that he had a temper on him. He was with us on the truck.

Remember the pink hedgehog we mentioned earlier? The one who kept crying out for her dad when we were in the truck? Well, her name was Amy Rose. Her dad had died in battle recently, and her mom was no where to be found. She was staying with an older cousin when she got lost in a crowd of refugees. The echidnas found her and brought her here. She carried around this big red and yellow hammer for some reason...But we found out its purpose when a another bully tried to mess with her. She was a pretty girl; I had a crush on her, but she liked my brother.

Then we meet a human boy with brown hair and blue eyes named Chrisopher Thorndyke. He came from a rich family, but they were stipped of everything they had when the Dark Legion came along. His dad was killed on sight. His mom was raped before she was killed, and no one knows what happened to his uncle and nana. They went missing shortly after their house burned down. Chris was found wandering the streets hoping to find his uncle, and he was found and brought here with the rest of us. He was one of the few on the truck with us as well.

We met another hedgehog after I got into a small fight with him. He was a black hedgehog with red stripes named Shadow. I didn't really like him, but we became friends in the end. No one really knows about his past, and no one knows if he had parents or not. All we know is that someone found him hiding in an alley and brought him to the orphanage. He was a bit of a mean kid; no one went around him because he would attack you if you went near him. I told Sonic to keep his distance, but Sonic was a brave kid, and we attempted to talk to Shadow anyway. As I expected, Shadow attacked him, and I jumped into action and fought back for my brother. Sonic and Knuckles eventually broke us up, and Shadow actually broke down into tears after the fight and told us to go away. Sonic didn't want to leave him after that, and tried to talk to him again. This time, Shadow didn't reject Sonic and told us that he was just lonely, sad and scared. He had been there for two months, and he was afraid of the adults there. We asked him why, but he wouldn't tell us. All in all, he became our friend, but he seemed closer to Sonic. He had strange powers and abilities called "Chaos Powers." He could teleport, stop time and disrupt space, and create a menacing blast of energy when angered. He seemed to be the most unigue of the group to us.

There was another set of twins in the orpahange besides Sonic and I. Sally and Alicia Acorn, the chipmunk twins. They were like us; very similar in appearance. Had the same colored eyes, same colored hair and hair length, same age, but you could only tell Sally from Alicia because Sally wore blue and Alicia wore purple. Sally and Alicia were actually the daughters of the king around that time, but he was suspected to be killed-along with his wife-when the Dark Legion invaded Knothole. They had an older brother named Elias, but he went missing when their parents were killed. Sally and Alicia were kidnapped, but then someone found them and brought them here. They were recent arrivals; they had came to the orphange just the day before we arrived. Both of the twins were very pretty; Sally and Sonic liked each other, and Alicia like me. But I had my eyes on Amy then, so I couldn't return her feelings at that moment.

There was this girl-a white Mobian bat- that we couldn't really trust. Her name was Rouge; her background was unknown like Shadow's, so we didn't know how she ended up in that place. We didn't really call her our friend, she was more like an associate. The reason for this is because we learned from the other kids that Rouge was a huge tattle-tale and told Finitevus anything the children did wrong. She was also sneaky; she had a habit of stealing toys from the others kids, but Knuckles wasn't going to have it. I remember when she tried to take a toy plane from Tails, Knuckles stepped in and hit her, making her cry and storm off. She was going to tell Finitevus on him, but I guess that hit did something to her head, because her hatred for Knuckles became attraction. We don't know how long Rouge had been there at the orphanage, but since she was older than the most of us, we suspected that she was there for a long time.

There was another echidna-a pink and purple female-that we were close too. Her name was Julie-Su. Julie was sent to the orphanage after her parents were killed for mutiny. Her mom was a member for the Dark Legion, but tried to leave the group when she discovered what their intentions were. They tried to flee the country, but were found and executed on sight. However, before they were killed, Julie's mother hid Julie away so they wouldn't kill her as well. Julie escaped, but not before watching her parents getting brutally murdered. Since then, Julie wandered the abandoned streets of the city, searching for food and shelter. A human guard found her and contacted the authorities. She was also on the truck with us. Also, Julie and Knuckles liked each other, so they became close.

A purple cat that went by the name of Blaze was Julie's best friend, so that's how we met her. Blaze's backstory is also unknown, but she told us that she was a princess of a neighboring kingdom before the war began. She doesn't know who or where her parents are, but she didn't let that hinder her. She was strong, brave, and told Rouge to back off ocassionally when the bat tried to get close to Knuckles. Sally and Alicia became Blaze's best friends too, since they could relate to her plight of being former princesses. Blaze acted like a tomboy most of the time, getting into fights and not playing games most girls would play. Also, we noticed that Blaze had the ability to control fire, so this made her a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, our last friend was a silvery hedgehog named-no joke-Silver. He was weird looking to us; he had a crest of quills on his head that shot upwards and two big ones on the back of his head. And he had these strange light blue markings on his hands and feet. We later learned that Silver could use telekinesis and lift any or all objects with a snap of his fingers. But the kid was too naive for his own good; luckily for him, I took him in as my other brother. Silver was being picked on by a group of humans when I stepped in and sent them packing. I told Silver that I didn't want to hurt him, and we became close friends. Silver had recently came to the orphanage just a few days ago. His dad was still serving in the war, but his mom was no where to be found. He cried a lot, often asking us if he would ever see his parents again. We would calm him down, but it had gotten so bad one day that he spent almost the whole day in the bathroom bawling his eyes out. However, despite these flaws, Silver had a heart of gold. Always determined, doesn't give up easily, and sees things out to the end. I admired Silver for that, despite the fact that he was probably younger than me.

So, all in all, we had our own little group. We would always sleep together in this little huddled group in the bedroom, play in the same areas, eat the same things and at the same table...You could say that we were like a family. And like a regular family, we kept getting more members.

We even started to play that game we saw earlier together, but we would do it in secret. The reason for this is because we were told by those running the orphanage that we had to play the game for a cause they wouldn't tell us...until we found out on our own as we got older. Anyway, Sonic felt like there was something wrong with that, and told us that we shouldn't play the game when Finitevus makes his rounds, nor should we tell them we played the game or who the loser was. It was a fun game though; we always played it whenever we got the chance.

As it was noted before, the game was called "Circle You." It was a game orignally from Chun-Nan, but we adopted the game and translated it from Japanese to English. The object of the game was that a group of kids would hold each others hands to build a "cage" around the "bird," the kid in the middle. We dance around the kid in the middle and sing the song, but the kid would have to have his eyes closed or covered while we circled him. On the last verse, "who's that right behind you" we stop dancing around the kid, and the kid in the middle would have to guess who was behind him or her without turning around. If he or she guess right, he or she would switch places with the kid behind him or her. But if he or she guessed wrong, he or she would remain in the middle and would have to stay there until he or she guess the right person.

The game is hard to win at, but it was fun to play. I only won once, Sonic haven't won one game, Knuckles won two games, Amy won three, and the rest usually won one or two games. We decide who would be in the middle by playing Rock Paper Scissors. The first one to lose would be in the middle.

_If only we had known then what kind of sinister twist was added to that game...we would have never played it. But we can't change the past..._

Anyway, as the weeks went by, we noticed that whenever Finitevus would come around, he would ask if we had played the game and ask for the loser. And then he would take the loser out of the room, and we never see that kid again. But that changed one day...

Sonic, Silver and I were playing Three Musketeers when the door opened. We expected it to be Finitevus, but it was too early. And then, a human boy walked in, his face wet with tears and his eyes were red, most likely from crying so much. The other kids didn't seem to notice anything, but we did. There was something very wrong with the boy. We had seen him the day before; he was watching cartoon with Heather, but then Finitevus made his rounds and took him out of the room since he was the loser of the Circle You game. We didn't see him for the rest of that day...But now he was brought back after who knows how long. On top of that...

His right arm was missing.

It was there yesterday, now it's completely gone. That's probably why he was crying. The echidnas who brought him in gave him a piece of candy before leaving, and the boy went back over to the television, sulking the whole way. The three of us exchanged glances before we went over to him.

"Hey, Leroy," Silver asked. "Where'd you go last night? And where's your arm?"

"Unlce Fini said that I needed a flu shot," he sniffled. "But then he said that there was something really, really wrong with my arm, so they had to take it off. That's why I was gone for a long time."

"Didn't Benny go with you too?" Sonic asked. Leroy nodded sadly. "So where is he now?"

"Uncle Fini said he went to paradise last night," Leroy said, nibbling at his candy. "He went into a glass room and never came out." There was no way we could have believed that. First off, Leroy's arm was perfectly fine the other day. But now he suddenly needed a flu shot, but then there's suddenly something wrong with his arm and it needs to be cut off? On top of that, Benny went with Leroy that same day. So why didn't Benny come back? In fact, what was this "paradise" these kids kept referring to? We didn't know..._yet._

Either way, we decided to leave Leroy alone so that he could adjust to just having one arm now.

"What do you think was wrong with his arm?" Silver asked curiously once we were out of earshot.

"I didn't think anything was wrong with it," Sonic trailed. "It looked fine to me!" I sat in one of the tables and shuffled my feet a bit.

"Do you think they put the wrong stuff in him?" I asked. "What if they put the wrong medicine in his arm that caused it to be taken off?"

"Maybe..." Sonic said, but I could tell by his voice that he wasn't convinced. At that moment, Knuckles, Julie, Blaze and Chris came over to us. Apparently, they had just paid a visit to Leroy, since they asked us if we knew why he only had one arm now. We told them what he told us, and Blaze came to a conclusion that we all had in our minds, but were too afraid to speak of it.

"What if they're lying?" she said. "Think about it! There was nothing wrong with Leroy's arm yesterday! Why does it suddenly need to be taken off now?"

"But why would Fini lie to us?" Chris asked. "He said we were safe here!"

"You can't trust many people during war," Knuckles mumbled before crossing his arms. "My papa told me so!" I opened my mouth to say something that would probably support Knuckles' comment, but I had to stop myself since the room door opened, and the White Angel entered the room once again. He had came to take another victim.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: **After suffering a few days of insomnia and writer's block, I am finally able to update. By the way, Zachary is indeed an official Sonic character from the comics, and as far as I know, he and Finitevus knew each other, so that's why I included him in this chapter. He'll also be in future chapters. And guess what? Lein-Da's in here too!

Anyway, enjoy, readers!

(By the way, I'm still shaking off this insomnia, and my eyesight isn't at it's best, so there might be a few typos and grammar mistakes I might've missed. Sorry about that...)

* * *

><p><strong>Surprise Visit<strong>

Two years had passed ever since Sonic and I were taken away from Mama. Children kept disappearing when they left with Finitevus, but they were quickly replaced with other children who were either torn from their families or already lost theirs and were found. Sonic and I were about nine or ten around this time, and we were moved from the child care part of the orphanage and put into the minor area.

The areas where the minors were housed weren't too different from the one for the little ones. But the child toys were replaced with video games, a larger television, separate rooms, and the latter. We didn't want to be moved, but since we were moved with our friends, it made it a little more bearable. Even so, it didn't make our stay pleasant.

I remember a time where I had became depressed for more than a week; I wouldn't play or talk to anyone, not even to Sonic. The reason for this is because, I came to a conclusion where I started to believe that Mama was killed when we were taken, and that shattered my heart into pieces...

I went down into the dumps after that. I would sit in front of this windows for hours, just blankly staring out of it, fighting off the urge to cry, or show any signs of sadness of distress. I cut myself off from the rest of the world; I wanted to be alone in my own little world, where Mama was alive, and Dad would be home, we wouldn't be in this dank place, and we'd be a family again. I know I worried Sonic to death when this happened, but at that point, I didn't care.

But then...that one night...

The minors had retired for bed, but I was still in front of that window, staring at the forest and the sky, thinking about Mama. Sonic must've noticed that I haven't moved ever since bedtime was called, so he came out to check on me. Of course, he didn't say anything since he knew I wouldn't respond to him; this was going on for more than a week, and I believe Sonic was at a loss on what to do with me. But I think he got an inkling on what was going on inside my head, since he said these four little words that made me break.

He came over to me, placed one of his hands on my shoulder and whispered "I miss them too..."

After that, everything just became a blur. I just remember being sprawled out on the floor while Sonic tried to muffle my cries and sobs by letting me bury my head in his stomach. He rocked me nonstop while trying to get me to calm down, but the tears, screams and cursing wouldn't stop. Sonic knew...he knew what happened to Mama, but he didn't want to tell me because he knew _this_ would happen. He knew how close I was to her, and he was just scared about telling me such horrible news...But why keep this from me? I thought we were brothers! We would never keep anything from each other! That's when i started to vent out my frustration on Sonic.

"You ass! How could you do this to me? You betrayed me! We aren't brothers anymore!" I didn't mean what I said to Sonic, and luckily for me, he knew I didn't mean that either. I guess that's why he allowed me to yell at him. We never fought before, and even when we do call each other names, it was out of play and we would be joking around. So this was a first for both of us.

Sonic stayed with me that whole night, and I cried myself to sleep at after six in the morning. Sonic had to carry me back to our rooms because I didn't have the energy to walk there myself, but Sonic didn't mind. I think I made myself sick from that, because the next day I felt horribly dizzy and nauseous. I hadn't eaten anything ever since I went into that phase, so that played some part in my condition. Regardless, Sonic, as well our friends, stayed by my side while I was ill. However, we had to make it see like nothing was wrong whenever Finitevus came around. It was bad enough that some of the kids would disappear whenever they went with him, but then to have the other have come back with missing body parts...We didn't want that guy to know that I was ill so he could have an excuse to take me away. Though, we had to worry about that tattle-tale Rouge...But she wasn't much of a problem.

But we were almost caught when Finitevus, along with one of his associates-another albino echidna who's called Zachary-came to check on us one afternoon. Sonic, Silver and Shadow had to drag me into the main area so it wouldn't seem like anything was wrong with me if I stayed in the bedrooms, and they would sit me in front of the television with my back towards them so it would look like I was more interested in what was on the TV than what was going on behind me. Silver and Sonic would stay by me while Shadow, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Sally and Alicia would keep watch. The others would have to go about with their own business so it wouldn't seem like our little group was up to something. But our plan sort of backfired...

I was feeling really dizzy and I was swaying a bit, and Sonic had to continuously keep my body straight. Unfortunately, Zachary saw what we were doing and alerted Fini, and they came over.

"Something wrong, boys?" Sonic and Silver jumped, and I found myself sitting up straighter than usual.

"N-nothing's wrong, sir," I heard Silver say.

"What about Scourge?" I heard Zachary asked. I saw Sonic gulp out of the corner of my eye; he wasn't the type of kid to lie to an adult, hence how he was taught. But me? Well, I'd lie if I was scared about telling the truth. But right now, we would both have to lie to get us out of this one.

"I'm okay," I said, turning towards them slightly, "I'm just watchin' this." Fini looked at me for a quick second before he made a face and knelt down next to me.

"Look at me," he said. It wasn't like I could disobey; he held my head so that I was looking directly at him. He looked at my face carefully, moving my head slightly. Sonic and Silver were growing uneasy, I was scared shitless, and I don't know what was going on with the others.

"Your eyes are puffy," Fini murmured, finally releasing my head.

"And his pupils are dilated," Zachary added.

"I'm not sick," I said quickly, "I ate some cashews earlier, an' I'm allergic to 'em. But I didn't know they were cashews until Sonic took 'em away and told me what they were, but I only ate like, two of 'em. So I'm havin' a small allergic reaction." They must've bought the little lie, since Finitevus seemed satisfied and finally let my head go.

"How long has it been since you ate these cashews?" he asked.

"Right before you came in," I replied.

"Do you need anything for that?"

"Nuh-uh! I'll only need medicine if I ate a lot of 'em. But since I ate about one or two, the reaction will go away, so I'll be fine." Finitevus felt satisfied by my answer and decided to leave the matter alone, and he and Zachary went back to whatever he was going to do when they came in. Sonic released a sigh of relief and patted my shoulder, giving me the "that was a close one" look. We had to wait for the two echidnas to leave before I was allowed to go back to bed. We spent the rest of the day in the bedroom, playing, joking around, and hanging out like a regular group of kids should.

**. . .**

"So, were you really allergic to cashews when you told the Doctor that?" Jonathan asked curiously.

"No," Sonic laughed, "He didn't have any allergic reactions to anything. He just said cashews because he doesn't like them."

"Clever," Jonathan commented, "So, how long were you in this depression?"

"A long time," Scourge replied, "I didn't stay sick for a long time, but my mental state was far from being cured. Regardless, the important thing is that Finitevus didn't catch my lie. We were only playing it safe; we were already wary about the guy, and the last thing we needed was for him to find out about my condition. Since then, we've been especially cautious until I healed."

**. . .**

Alicia, Silver and Sonic were the main ones nursing me until I regained my strength. It took two more weeks, but I eventually returned back to my normal healthy self. However, I never got out of my depression. I still sat in front of that same window, but not as much as before. They also helped me by playing Circle You with me while I was still bedridden. Though I couldn't play it well since I was sick, I still had fun.

I think I made Sonic depressed during that time as well; being close siblings, we could feel what the other was feeling. So, since I was down, Sonic was down most of the time too, which was a first for him. I always looked up to my brother because he was mentally stronger than I was, and brave. And to see him depressed because of me, it made me feel...guilty...And at that time, I always thought big brothers were perfect. They couldn't be affected by something like this, and it was their job to help the younger sibling when something was wrong. So now, the roles swapped; now I had to help Sonic get through his depression. But I should've known that this would happen eventually...Sonic loved Mama and Dad just as much as I did, and he knew that they were departed from this world long before I did. I believe it crushed him more to know that he would have to tell me this since I was naive back then...

Anyway, there was this day where something..."important" happened. Sonic, Shadow, Silver and I were playing near the window I liked to look out of when Shadow just happened to look out into the front yard. We didn't think anything of it until we noticed that he was just standing there, looking down.

"Hey Shad," Sonic called, "What's up? What'cha lookin' at?" Shadow didn't say anything right away, but he turned towards us and told us to come over there. The four of us crowded around the window, and Shadow pointed down towards the yard. When we looked down, we saw this female echidna getting out of an army Jeep. Normally, we wouldn't have thought nothing of it, but the reason it caught our interest is because the echidna's face was shown on the news many times before. On top of that, Finitevus was out there talking to her.

"I saw her before!" Silver exclaimed, "I saw her on the magic box lots of times!" Silver called televisions "magic boxes" for some odd reason...But Sonic and I thought him what televisions were called.

"We have too," I added, "and Mama said she's a very bad person."

"What's she doing here?" Shadow mumbled.

"You don't know who that is do you?" I was the first one to turn around to see Rouge was standing behind us with her hands on her hips. I found myself scowling at her, but Sonic spoke before any of us could.

"Who is that?" he asked simply.

"Lein-Da," Rouge replied lyrically, as if she was teasing us, "You know that she's the one responsible for this whole war." Shadow whipped his head around and glared directly at her.

"How do you know?" he demanded. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"She was on the news! Duh!"

"But why is she here?" Silver asked, with a worried look on his face, "And why is she talking to Fini?"

"I wouldn't know," Rouge said, turning her back towards us, "But if she's here, then that's bad news for all of us. She's real mean, that's all I know. So you boys better be on your best behavior~" And then she walked off, sashaying her hips along the way, as if she were a princess or something. Now we were getting worried. If the person responsible for the war, as well as the one responsible for the death of our families, is here, and is an associate of the Doctor, then we were indeed in deep trouble...

But we didn't know how much trouble we were in until it was too late...


End file.
